ATLANTA - An Atlanta-area man who poisoned his children's soup to justify a lawsuit against the Campbell's Soup Co., was sentenced to five years in prison.

U.S. District Court Judge Julie Carnes sentenced William Cunningham, 41, on Thursday and also forbade him from having contact with his children for three years after his prison sentence ends, the Atlanta Journal Constitution reported Friday.

Cunningham confessed in February to spiking his two children's soup with Prozac, lighter fluid and hot peppers as part of a scheme to collect cash from Campbell's.

The normal maximum sentence for the federal charge of making a false statement is 18 months, but federal prosecutors sought a longer sentence because of the harm he exposed his children to, the report said.

At the time of the poisoning, Cunningham's son was 3, and his daughter was 18 months old.